The YapBrowser, also called YapSearch or YapCash, originally came bundled in the Zango adware program distributed by 180Solutions. After the company discovered YapBrowser “pushed” surfers to child porn ads after certain search terms or URLs were entered, it severed ties with the Russia-based browser.
“Type a URL into the address bar at the top — any URL, or anything at all, or nothing — and the browser sends you straight to an advert page,” Andrew Clover of VitalSecurity.org said. “An advert page for hardcore child porn sites.”
This time, YapBrowser claims to offer a “100 percent guarantee” that no malicious software will be installed and the users’ computer is not at risk while using the software. However, Internet security firms sing a completely different tune.
“We do not recommend the software given the highly debatable history behind it,” Wayne Porter a researcher for FaceTime Security Labs told Yahoo.com. “I suggest users steer clear.”
YapBrowser operates two versions of its software, “regular” and “adult.” Upon release in April both versions didn’t seem to work properly, and after installation, users were regularly directed to porn no matter what URL they tried to enter.
MacAfee has red-flagged the software as a “potentially unwanted program.”
“The application does display a license agreement when installed,” a MacAfee security advisory said. “The license is sparse and rendered in poor/incorrect English. The agreement does not clearly indicate the functionality of the software.”
While YapBrowser is not a virus or Trojan, upon installation, a shortcut is placed in the computer’s start registry to make sure it engages each time the computer is turned on.
In testing by MacAfee, the browser did not function and 404 errors were displayed for any type-in url.
“It appears to be primarily a front-end for the IE HTML rendering engine,” MacAfee said. “The only functional page was accessible by pressing the ‘home’ button, which brought up the yapsearch.com portal. All results returned using the portal resulted in lists of commercial links, often directing to other shopping search portals.”
